Senate border bill is flawed — not in ways the GOP suggests
Republicans see immigration as a good issue. So why are they dealing in bad faith?
In the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson has been threatening to hold up foreign aid for allies (such as Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine) unless Democrats crack down on the U.S.-Mexico border.
But now that a bipartisan group in the Senate is getting ready to give Republicans a piece of legislation that provides just about everything they wanted, the right-wingers have decided they don't want it anymore.
They want something different. A potent campaign issue to use against Biden in November, perhaps?
On their anti-immigration wish list, GOP lawmakers want to make it more difficult for migrants to cross the border without permission, easier for the undocumented to be removed and harder for them to return to the United States. Republicans also want to stiffen the requirements to make it nearly impossible to obtain refugee status. Finally, they want the president to have the power to “pause” the asylum process and effectively shut down the border when the number of crossings gets too high.
House Republicans claim all these measures would help the United States control a chaotic U.S.-Mexico border. How chaotic? U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it had a record 302,034 total encounters along our southern border in December.
This being an election year and with the U.S.Mexico border in chaos, Democrats gave in. The Democratic Party, which is home to restrictionists such as former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, doesn't need much of an incentive to get tough on border crossers.
In 1994, Clinton militarized the U.S.-Mexico border south of San Diego through Operation Gatekeeper. And in 1996, he signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which made it easier to deport the undocumented and barred them from reentering the United States for up to 10 years.
During Obama's eight years in office, more than 3 million people were deported. He then tried to deflect criticism by misleading the public and claiming that most of the people removed were “gangbangers” and criminals. Studies of those who were deported showed otherwise.
Then we have President Jor Biden. While in the Senate, he voted for IIRIRA. As president, he pilfered some of the more restrictive immigration policies implemented by former President Donald Trump.
For example, despite promising to end Title 42 — the provision of U.S. code that allows the United States to keep out migrants to protect public health — the Biden administration preserved and defended it for more than a year before trying to stop it.
In fact, Biden's immigration record is so bad that his administration is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Most recently, Biden said he would shut down the border right now, if the Senate bill already was in effect.
The truth is, when it comes to cracking down on immigration, Democrats are an easy sell.
Meanwhile, conservatives say they oppose the immigration bill because the legislation does not appear to have any new funding for walls and fences along the U.S-Mexico border. Others also are concerned that the restrictions don't go far enough.
I don't buy it. This seems like an odd time to push for what politicians call “physical barriers.” It's hard to find anyone in Washington — in either party — who doesn't support building more walls.
Biden is a believer. While in the Senate, he voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized the building of new barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. A few months ago, his administration announced that — despite Biden's 2020 campaign promise not to build “another foot” of border wall — it was preparing to build more than 20 miles' worth.
Republicans are half right and half wrong. They're right that — judging by what has leaked out so far — the Senate bill appears to be deeply flawed. But they're wrong as to why.
The real problem with the bill is that it lacks the one thing that could slow the stream of migrants: A new round of stiffer employer sanctions.
Americans who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants already are subject to fines under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Now they need to face jail time.
That includes the U.S. household. When we start locking up soccer moms and work-from-home dads who hire undocumented housekeepers and landscapers, the world will know we're serious.
Yet, lawmakers in both parties are afraid to even broach that subject. Which explains why the immigration problem will never be fixed. How can it be when Americans refuse to accept their role in creating it?